On first listen this completely blew me away. The Cool is what Kanye wanted to create with Graduation; despite the overall dark overtone it manages to emit a celebratory vibe without compromising lyrical quality. Long rap albums often are inflated with annoying skits or filler tracks, yet at 19 tracks and clocking in at over 70 minutes, The Cool manages to avoid both of those pitfalls. I knew Lupe was special the first time I saw the Kick Push video, and after hearing Food & Liquor it was clear he was a great rapper that was going to grow into a great artist. Despite some flaws, The Cool is clearly Lupe's coming out party, and he's catapulted ahead of his class.
Lyrically Lupe has always been a great rapper, but here he takes it to another level in terms of his flow; Food & Liquor may be more complex lyrically but The Cool is more structured. On songs like Go Go Gadget Flow and The Coolest his flow is effortless without being over bloated with nonsense; unlike many rappers he has a point as well as a flow. Food & Liquor was very impressive in terms of use of metaphors, and here Lupe outdoes himself on a few tracks, especially Gotta Eat - one of the most inventive takes on the rather cliche street crime topic. Hip Hop Saved My Life is a great storytelling track which manages to dissect the roots of generic rap without being condescending or critical; for every studio gangsta out there attempting to make quick bucks there's a guy just trying to feed his family. And then there are those who lose themselves at that point, chasing the fame and glory - The Cool. Lupe manages to cover a wide variety of topics instead of focusing on the "I got money!" type tracks many albums are filled with; Gold Watch is materialistic but how many bravado tracks feature Street Fighter II quips?
I haven't seen the production credits yet but it seems like most tracks weren't produced by big names. Despite that it manages to be quite lush, focusing on a collection of strings, pianos, and live drums instead of vocal sample loops. In this regard it reminds me a bit of Late Registration, although not as orchestrated of course. Hello/Goodbye sounds almost like a nu metal track with the downward chord progression and crazy drums. You certainly don't hear anything like that on most hip hop albums. Paris, Tokyo feels like a long lost Midnight Marauders track featuring a nostalgic flow that's reminiscent of Resurrection-era Common; it's a classic throwback track.
If I have any complaints about The Cool it would be the choruses on many tracks. Often they boil down to repeating a few words over and over again, with the worst offender being Go Go Gadget Flow. Some other hooks seem almost phoned in by singers I've never heard of, such as the female singer on Intruder Alert; the track would have benefited from a stronger voice to pull off the more soulful parts. Also as the album progresses the production gets a bit repetitive, although I certainly wouldn't complain about the quality of the beats. Finally, Dumb it Down is not a bad track but it doesn't work much as the lyrics seem to outweigh the song.
Overall The Cool is amazing on nearly every level. Lupe just dropped the rap album of the year (it's better than Ghostface's Big Doe Rehab, my previous fav). It might even be my favorite album of the year. Clearly Lupe has come into his own; lyrically he doesn't have much competition in terms of young MCs. I'm sure the album will receive critical praise which will hopefully get more people interested in him.
4.5/5
